NxG Moderators: By Next Gens - For Next Gens!

Rania is Associate Professor of Management Sciences at the University of Bordeaux IV. She teaches and conducts research on family business, especially corporate governance, financial policies, family relationships, emotions in decision-making and succession. She serves as academic expert for FBN-I where she is mainly involved in the NxG International Committee. She contributes to academic content development for the FBN International conferences and moderates workshops and cases on family businesses.

Anna Viegener

Company: Viega GmbH & Co. KG
Country: Germany
Generation: 5th

Anna is a 5th generation member of the Viega GmbH & Co. KG from Germany. She has worked in a strategic consulting firm in Switzerland, Geneva that is active in the international development sector, and is currently part of an e-commerce start-up in Silicon Valley. She holds a Master of Science in International Management form the ESADE Business School and London School of Economics and will soon start working in an internationally operating family business in Germany.

Samuel is a 4th generation member of the Grupo Económico Maldonado (GEM) from Venezuela. He has a BA in Psychology and a BS in Business Administration. He is an active member of the GEM Family Council. He is also a member of FBN’s NxG International Committee.

Dr. Ingo Wersborg

Company: Precitec Group
Country: Germany
Generation: 2nd

Ingo is active part of the 2nd generation of Precitec Group family business. He holds a Sc.D. in electrical engineering and computer science. Ingo studied at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He specialized in machine learning for industrial systems as well as in quantum optics.

Dr. Thilo Wersborg

Company: Precitec Group
Country: Germany
Generation: 2nd

Before joining the management board of Precitec, Thilo has worked for an internet start-up company in Silicon Valley and for an international consulting firm in Frankfurt, Germany. He holds a Master of Science from Stanford University and a Doctor in Human Biology from the University of Munich. Precitec has gained an international reputation for being an expert in providing complex system solutions for laser material processing and for optical measuring technology. Thilo represents the Next Generation.

Dominique Otten

Company: Famos Immobilien GmbH
Country: Germany
Generation: 3rd

Dominique Otten, born in 1979 as the daughter of a business owning family, completed her BA in French Studies and Psychology at Lancaster University in the UK. Afterwards she worked a number of years as project manager in a family owned retail business before graduating with distinction with an MBA from TiasNimbas Business School in the Netherlands in 2010. In her master thesis she investigated the challenges and pathways daughters from business owning families are faced with in their career. Since April 2011 she has been working at the Witten Institute for Family Business (WIFU) at Witten/Herdecke University within theresearch project “women in family owned businesses”.

Julia Hieber

Julia is the Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise at INSEAD. She is also an active member of FBN International, where over the years she initiated the 'FBN Social Entrepreneurship Days', the FBN-Ashoka Partnership, and the 'Families and Philanthropy' brochures to build bridges between and opportunities for families in business and social entrepreneurs to create hybrid models of financial, environmental and social profit around the world.

Julia is a native of Bavaria. She grew up in Brussels and Munich and graduated from the Universities of Oxford (MA Honors), Cambridge (MPhil) and Sciences Po Paris (DEA), and completed the Executive MBA for Families in Business with Prof. Joseph Astrachan at Kennesaw.

Caroline Thijssen

Company: Aliaxis
Country: Belgium
Generation: 6th

Caroline is a 6th generation member of Aliaxis, a Belgian group active in the production and sale of plastic pipes. After finishing her Master in Business Administration and Management Sciences, she joined Fortis group as International Management Trainee. Since August 2011, she is Branch Manager in Retail and Private Banking at BNP Paribas Fortis. She's an active member of the FBN International NxG Committee, and President of the Belgian NxG chapter.